Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the field of electric vehicles, and specifically, to a method and system for charging electric vehicles.
Growing prices and depleting availability of conventional sources of fuel for vehicles, like petrol, diesel, and natural gas, has given way to the usage of energy storage mechanisms, such as electric batteries, in vehicles. Electric vehicles, as vehicles with energy storage mechanisms are called, are now an important part of the automobile industry with every automobile manufacturer launching electric vehicles.
The electric storage mechanisms, which store energy for the vehicle's consumption, need periodic charging to replenish the charge consumed by the vehicles. Vehicles are generally charged utilizing power generation mechanisms on the vehicle, or charging stations at residences or offices, or on-street charging stations located at public places.
While charging through charging stations, vehicles are plugged in to a charging station/point that is coupled to a power source, such as a utility grid, or a local generator. Charging points/stations are configured to charge an electric vehicle to a state of charge desired by the vehicle user. The charging stations draw power from the power source to provide energy to the vehicles to meet their state of charge requirements. An electric vehicle user thus decides the state of charge she wishes to maintain in the vehicle and charges the vehicle accordingly. Since each vehicle utilizes the charging station individually, available charging station resources are not utilized efficiently, as some vehicles may carry more charge than required and some vehicles may not have enough charge to operate.
Charging management systems, designed to add efficiency to vehicle charging, predict future usage of a vehicle based on past data available from the vehicle to determine the desired state of charge for the vehicle to operate efficiently. Predictive models are designed based on historic usage data for electric vehicles and are provided to charging management systems to determine predicted usage information. The management systems are further configured to transmit charging commands to the charging point/stations to charge the vehicle according to the calculated predicted usage information.
Although the predicted usage information provides important information to the charging station with respect to a single vehicle in isolation, the present day charging management systems do not take into account the change in desired state of charge requirements based on the presence of multiple electric vehicles. The power sources that provide power to the charging stations are, often times, also sources of power to other facilities located in the vicinity of the charging station. Present day charging management systems also do not optimize charging requirements of the vehicles so as to effectively provide charge to all the vehicles to meet at least their minimum requirements and at the same time allow the power source to cater to the power needs of other facilities connected to it.
Existing predictive models also do not take into account a stress in demand felt by power sources when the number of vehicles being charged at charging stations increases. For example, in a densely populated region, a fleet of vehicles being charged at a charging station could lead to greater concentration of power being supplied to the single charging station as opposed to the rest of the region. In similar vein, existing predictive models also do not take into account the stress related to costs felt by charging station providers in making power available for multiple vehicles associated with it.
Hence, there is a need for a method and system for charging of electric vehicles that provides for optimization of resources available with the charging station.